BRIEFLY NOTED The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler (Knopt $24.95). This novel of marital unhappiness focusses on a couple whose fraught relationship spans sixty years. In the early days of the Second World War, Michael and Pauline find themselves drawn together despite misgivings and bitter fights. The resulting marriage is a thirty-year clash between her impulsive- ness and self-absorption and his tacitur- nity and barely suppressed rage. Tyler ex- amines their acrimonious bond, which persists even after their eventual divorce, with a keen eye for the minor differences that suddenly widen into chasms. In order to illuminate every facet of the couple's interactions and personalities, the story is told from several points of view: those of Michael and Pauline and two of their three children. Although Tyler's prose occasionally slips into ba- nality; she never falters in creating vivid characters whose weaknesses are both credible and compelling. A Saint, More or Less, by Henry Grun- wald (Random House; $23.95). Grunwald prefaces his historical novel with an ac- count of how he picked up a little book about miracles from a remainder table and came across a mention of Nicole Tavernier. A healer, vagrant, and self- proclaimed prophet in France at the end of the sixteenth century; Tavernier was championed, for a time, by the legendary Barbe Acarie, who founded the French branch of the Discalced Carmelites and was later beatified. Very little is known about Tavernier's life, and this gives full rein to Grunwald's inventive gifts. Ulti- matel)!, the novel is as much about doubt, fraud, cattiness, and superstition as it is about faith. Grunwald, himself thor- ougWy secular, seems surprised at his own fascination with Tavernier, and rec- ommends her as a "patron saint of all those who want to believe but cannot." A Nation Under Our Feet, by Steven Hahn (Harvard; $35). Looking back on his ante- bellum childhood, Booker T Washington wondered at how slaves "on the remot- est plantations" had so knowledgeably debated "the great National questions." Hahn argues, in this ambitious and fasci- nating book, that associations of slaves- centered on kinship, work, and religion- were far more intricate, enduring, and politicized than has been realized. For Hahn, plantation life was the crucible in which modem black political communi- ties were formed. Slaves who hid under porches to overhear news later aston- ished their former masters by marching in groups to the polls (with women act- ing as "enforcers" of party loyalty). One of the most striking theses here is that black rural laborers, rather than urban, educated freeborn leaders, radicalized Reconstruc- tion. Freed slaves were also, Hahn writes, some of the most important advocates America ever had for a broad concept of citizenship based not on property or edu- cation but on "manhood"-for which he calls them "the jacobins of the countT)1." The Naked Crowd, by]effrey Rosen (Ran- dom House; $24. 95). In an effort to predict where concerns about domestic security may lead us, Rosen takes the example of Britain. Mer two deadly I.R.A. bomb- ings in London's financial district, the government mounted surveillance cam- eras on eight gates in the area. By now; the country has some four million cameras, and the average citizen is photographed by an estimated three hundred of them every da)T. But the cameras have yet to help capture a single terrorist. Rosen's wide-ranging and thoughtful defense of privacy rights suggests that the United States is highly susceptible to similar measures, citing an executive branch in- tent on stoking the public's post-9/11 anx- ieties and, more surprisingly; the voluntary surrender of privacy inherent in personal Web pages and reality TV shows. Despite Rosen's occasionally hectoring tone, his solution-that new security technologies be tamed with strong congressional re- straints-is far too sensible to stand much chance of being implemented. AL GORE TO OPEN THREE-DAY CONFERENCE :: ebruary 5..7, 2" 1'14 Timely & Relevant .: ) ..'. .: ".:,. ...... . ,.,....-......-...,...- ...... Its Political Uses and Abuses For information or to register: 212-229-2488 or www.socres.orglfear W New School University T 66 West 12th Street New York NY 10011 What is it about Angels... Freshwater Pearl & 18k Gold Necklace 18 inches, $725. 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